Cafe Minamdang: Episodes 17-18 (Final)
by meryl
Our shaman and his crew finally uncover the killer’s identity, and they plan one last grand scheme to capture him. While it doesn’t go exactly as planned, they’re still able to find closure — and even a happy ending.
EPISODES 17-18 WEECAP
We finally see what happened right before Do-won set up Han-jun as a murderer. Worried about Han-jun, Su-cheol and Hye-jun barge into the temple, only finding Jae-hui inside. They call Do-won for help. But the psychopath just points them in the wrong direction, because he has already dragged Han-jun back to Cafe Minamdang. Unbeknown to him, Seung-won has been tailing him.
Elsewhere, we also see how Assistant Gu has escaped. After Detective Jang tries to encourage the arsonist to confess, a Van of Doom slams onto the police transport car, allowing Assistant Gu to escape and reunite with Do-won.
Much later, Do-won, now donning his prosecutor persona, waits for Jae-hui and co. at the cafe. But of course, what they find is the murder scene he has set up: Han-jun holding a bloody knife in front of Auntie Im’s cold, dead body.
Do-won has flipped the story around: “You got caught trying to fool us all,” says the one who is actually fooling everyone. Jae-hui attempts to dissuade the prosecutor from arresting Han-jun, but she only gets removed from the case, with Do-won citing her close relationship with the suspect. And so our beloved shaman is brought in as a suspect.
But Han-jun being Han-jun, he doesn’t let this faze him too much. He leaves a series of case numbers with Su-cheol and Hye-jun to investigate.
At the station, Han-jun combines his expert profiling skills, memories, and all the knowledge he now has about Gopuri to figure out the real culprit’s identity. He comes to a startling conclusion that makes him shout and scoff in frustration… Or not? He tells Jae-hui he wouldn’t be in a cell if he knew who Gopuri really is.
But he does take this chance to apologize for deceiving her before, and Jae-hui reiterates that she still trusts him and she’ll do whatever it takes to prove his innocence.
The next day, just before being transferred to the prosecution, Han-jun is having digestion problems. He needs to go to the bathroom! One with a bidet, to be specific! The one by the chief’s office! He’s making a fuss, because Su-cheol is actually waiting there to break him out. (Are the police just incompetent or are they in on his plan? Hmm.)
Han-jun calls Jae-hui to inform her of his suspicions that there’s a spy in their midst. Oof. A fidgety Do-won is literally right there, listening. Please don’t spill the beans there.
When Jae-hui agrees with Han-jun’s assessment about a spy, Do-won looks even more nervous. But attention isn’t on him as the police team starts pointing fingers at each other, with Detective Jang even walking out in indignation.
Do-won answers a call from Seung-won, who is angry about getting the blame for murders he didn’t even do. The older brother blackmails him with an incriminating video of a bloody Do-won exiting Minamdang. But the younger brother offers a tempting deal: the Choekang chairmanship in exchange for Seung-won doing Do-won’s dirty work.
The next day, Jae-hui heads to Seung-won’s office to ask him questions. But she never actually makes it there as she’s pulled into a black van. From afar, the Minamdang crew sees her getting kidnapped. They try to follow in a car chase, but end up losing the van. So they call for backup… who else but the trusty Do-won?
Han-jun begs for Do-won’s help, sounding desperate. The prosecutor smirks in his office, promising to “help” find Jae-hui. (Ugh, I can’t believe I was cheering him on as second lead a couple of weeks ago.)
You might be getting frustrated with how much trust they still have in Do-won, but all of these, as it turns out, are just part of Han-jun’s masterplan. Because he did figure out Gopuri’s identity. Yay, let’s go, Minamdang scheme! Even if there’s less shaman elements now.
Now, we rewind all the way back to the holding cell: Han-jun has actually called a meeting with everyone in the team to reveal Gopuri’s real identity. Gopuri isn’t just one person — it’s three, all with different murder motives: greed (Auntie Im cleaning up after her clients), hindrance (Assistant Gu removing obstacles in his master’s path), and execution (Do-won enacting his own justice).
Seeing all of her interactions with Do-won through a fresh yet heartbreaking perspective, a distraught Jae-hui breaks down in tears. A friend she trusted for so long (and who allegedly liked her!) was her brother’s killer all along. Poor Jae-hui. At least she has Han-jun’s shoulder to cry on.
But she quickly collects herself to catch the real killer. So the team gets to work with our resident shaman in the lead, of course! Everything was all part of Han-jun’s plan — the escape, Jae-hui’s “kidnapping” (despite the protests of a pouting Han-jun), and even the police team’s internal conflict. Hooray for a Minamdang scheme! Really!
Back to the present day, Seung-won promises he’ll get back at his younger brother, but that can’t happen after the Minamdang crew traps him and his secretary. He’s staying mum, but after the threat of getting trapped in “cement” (it’s just mud, according to Hye-jun), his secretary spills the tea. Seung-won out!
At the meeting location, Do-won waits for his brother. Unfortunately for him, Han-jun is one step ahead of him. Or is he? Seems like everything’s going well, but not really…
First, Detective Na, drunk on relaxant, nearly blows their cover. Then, Detective Jang gets too immersed in his role as a villainous secretary after being hit by an actual metal pole (Ouch!). Then, as opposed to Han-jun’s stellar acting, Su-cheol acting as Seung-won is so nervous that he needs to read his lines from his hand, LOL. The plan sounded so airtight when Han-jun was explaining it, but now he’s got a lot of variables that may just expose the ruse.
No matter, Do-won heads down to confront him, and he doesn’t notice anything, because he just wants to mock Han-jun for figuring out his identity “too late.” How does he not notice that it’s not his brother lying right there…?
Han-jun finally gets the chance to know why his best friend died, but Do-won simply pins the blame on him, claiming he wouldn’t have killed them if Han-jun didn’t chase him around.
Do-won says he enjoys the feeling of control over a life, of enacting justice on others. But he’s flustered when the shaman just laughs. Han-jun reveals he captured Do-won’s confession on camera. And finally, Do-won realizes he got trapped.
But the crew forgot one variable: Assistant Gu, who points a hunting rifle at them. Jae-hui comes to the rescue just in time, but she still takes a bullet to the shoulder, allowing Do-won to escape.
Still, the team doesn’t waste time to catch the serial killer, utilizing the media to hunt Do-won down. But it only ignites debates about his actions. Some people see Do-won as a heartless murderer who should be behind bars, while others paint him as a vigilante who delivers justice for those who escape the law. Oof.
The next day, after raiding Do-won’s office, Jae-hui finds the psychiatrist’s records on how she manipulated Do-won’s behavior. After watching the logs, Han-jun figures Do-won will set out to kill again, and soon — either because he can’t help his murderous urges or because he wants to justify his previous kills as principled acts.
Finding matches among the data on Do-won’s computer, Assistant Gu’s files, and Auntie Im’s gopuri knots, the crew is able to figure out who Do-won’s next targets are. Each name has a criminal record, so it seems Do-won is still set on enacting justice in his own twisted way.
To cover more ground, the team splits up: Han-jun and Su-cheol, Hye-jun and Na-dan, Jae-hui and Detective Jang, and Detectives Na and Kim. And despite losing his accomplices, Do-won proves just why he’s a psycho, using the classic divide and conquer method.
After Hye-jun gets frustrated with the slow internet connection, she and Na-dan infiltrate a security office. But Do-won has really lured her to incapacitate her. After getting no response from Hye-jun, Na-dan goes to check on her, but Do-won also ambushes him. He even traps Su-cheol in a closed-up store, so he can finally get Han-jun on his own. Because Han-jun has always been his target.
Oh my, this is literally Han-jun’s worst nightmare! After Jae-jeong’s untimely death, he has always been so scared about his found family getting in danger because of Gopuri. Nooooo, please let everyone be okay!
The shaman tries to call the other units, but everyone else is preoccupied: Jae-hui is dealing with an impromptu drug bust, while Detectives Kim and Na are stuck on a boat. And Su-cheol is heading to Hye-jun and Na-dan. (Grateful they’re okay, but I wish they explored Han-jun’s fears more. What a development that would’ve been.)
The shaman finally faces off against his mortal enemy. In an intense 1v1, Han-jun tells him to “stop pretending to be a freaking victim” because he is a murderer. “You’re just a crazy psychopath… You’re not some righteous grand judge that you think you are.”
Still, Do-won firmly believes he’s a man of principle and justice that society wants and needs. (Some people did think he was a vigilante…) So he continues his attempts to provoke Han-jun, but Han-jun just rebuts him, affirming their difference. “Unlike you, I don’t think I embody justice.” And so he leaves the murderer to the police.
As Jae-hui arrests Do-won, Han-jun hogs the media’s attention to show off his awesome profiling skills. But his crew takes this chance instead to advertise Cafe Minamdang and its amazing shaman services. They still have a loan to pay off, after all. LOL.
A week later, Do-won and Jae-hui get one last face-to-face meeting. Even in handcuffs and prison clothes, Do-won believes his murders are acts of justice, even claiming he was sincere about liking her. (Urgh.) Jae-hui curses him to the end of the world, promising to catch killers like him.
Meanwhile, Cafe Minamdang is filled with posts of Han-jun and fans visiting just to see him. But the shaman leaves to take some time off, much to his crew’s consternation. He’s able to pull Jae-hui away from her work for a bit, but while Jae-hui does enjoy their date, she says she’s happiest working on cases with Han-jun and the rest of their team.
So of course, what else do they find on their holiday but a new murder case? So we say goodbye to the beloved Minamdang crew just as they continue to solve cases and take down criminals together. Because you can pull the shaman away from Minamdang, but you can’t take Minamdang out of Han-jun. (Did that make sense? The show didn’t make much sense either, so eh.)
Phew. It’s finally over! I’m sorry to say, but this show gave me more reasons to drop than to stay. For one, I needed to completely ignore wacky age gaps to continue the drama. The timeline has always been weird from the beginning (e.g. the leads’ age gap, Auntie Im’s seeming immortality, and more), but I had to use suspension of disbelief to be able to (try to) enjoy each episode.
It was also disappointing how the supposed second lead was sidelined so much in the first half. Do-won seemed to be a bad guy in disguise (and he was), but because he was barely in the first half, the build-up to his identity reveal wasn’t enough to be satisfying (even if we all suspected him already). We only really got to see Do-won more involved in the latter half, and by then, it’s like the show forgot how they described him in the first few episodes. What became of Chatterbox Prosecutor? I feel like that would’ve been a funny gag if they continued with that; it could’ve been better cover for him as the bad guy, instead of being a lovelorn second lead. Unfortunately, it seems this drama was trying to do too many things at once.
At least they got scene-stealer Min-gyeong right. I’m glad she was a recurring character, instead of a one-time thing, and I’m glad to see her at the end of the series, too, happy with her new love Director Park.
If I weren’t covering this show, I probably would’ve skipped every scene that didn’t have Han-jun and the rest of the Minamdang crew. And I don’t really see myself rewatching this series. If ever, I might just watch edits of the Minamdang crew, because they were truly the highlight here, and definitely hard-carried this show — especially Seo In-gook. Hopefully, he stars in a better written show next time. Fingers crossed! And *shaman dance* too, just in case.
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Tags: Cafe Minamdang, Kang Mina, Kwak Shi-yang, Kwon Soo-hyun, Oh Yeon-seo, Seo In-gook
![[Beanie Recs] Dramas about fangirling](https://d263ao8qih4miy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BeanieRecs.jpg)
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1 gupse the circassian amazon
August 25, 2022 at 10:10 AM
"Psychopath mode" Do-won = speak while laughing/chuckling. Wondering who told him to do that lol
It's finally over! Thank you to this show for serving as my "watch on the treadmill" entertainment for the past couple of weeks. Those "wtf even is this" "this FL is unbearable" moments were good fuel for my cardio
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gupse the circassian amazon
August 25, 2022 at 10:14 AM
At this point, I am going to be calling up shamans for help with Seo Inguk's show selection.
Also someone on the writing team had it out for Oh Yeon-seo for sure... lol
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2 miso
August 25, 2022 at 10:15 AM
It really wouldn't be a Café Minamdang episode without the FL letting the criminal escape. There is an almost admirable consistency in the incompetence - we basically wouldn't have most of Ep. 18 if she hadn't been so bad at her job 🙄.
At least Min-gyeong, Director Park and (future) baby Minam got a happy ending. I'll be happy with that and my Bean of Disappointment 😅.
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Nal
August 25, 2022 at 11:53 AM
we basically wouldn't have most of Ep. 18 if she hadn't been so bad at her job 🙄
This!!!!!!
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3 Kafiyah Bello
August 25, 2022 at 10:22 AM
At lastttttt!!! We made it. Ha.
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LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
August 25, 2022 at 1:19 PM
For this relief, much thanks
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ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 25, 2022 at 5:02 PM
We deserve a fucking prize for it. Or at least an extra bean or something.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 6:22 PM
Do it then. When the bean count comes round, give yourself an extra one. There are no rules set in stone to the bean count anyway :P
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ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 25, 2022 at 11:37 PM
You know what, I’ll actually do that because there was literally no other reason for me to stick through all 18 episodes of this mess.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2022 at 12:24 AM
I'm a big supporter of breaking the Bean Count rules :P
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
August 26, 2022 at 12:43 AM
If we are going to be adding extra beans for beans of shame or disappointment then is there a scaling system? For example: Why her gets 2 for the unnecessary and wrong on so many levels love story and the truck of doom on a child and this one get one bean for the…
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2022 at 1:14 AM
I mean I just make up my own bean count when the time comes to whatever I feel like and whatever suits my year of watching... :P So... yes.
LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
August 26, 2022 at 2:02 AM
This is why I invented Antibeans
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
August 26, 2022 at 2:09 AM
@leetennant Love that name. I now have a name for the watched and dropped, or hate watched to the bitter end list of dramas that is growing ever longer this year.
ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 26, 2022 at 11:22 AM
Now that you said it, Why Her? viewers do deserve an extra bean for the nonsense of the second half. Not me though, I dipped pretty quickly from that and only kept reading the weecaps.
ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 26, 2022 at 11:24 AM
@leetennant: That’s pretty handy. I now know exactly what to call my hate-watch shows.
Kafiyah Bello
August 26, 2022 at 4:19 AM
We did the Devil's work with this one, lol. So I think an extra bean is worth it. Ziggy, our love will never die.
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4 shinayame
August 25, 2022 at 10:23 AM
Is it bad that I was hoping for Do-Won to actually get away with his crimes and, like, move to the Maldives or something with Gu Tae-Su as his henchman-butler?
If someone understood how Han-jun worked out that Do-won was Gopuri, please let me know because I did not understand that leap AT ALL. Was he actually a shaman all along, but he didn't know? Because there was 0% actual profiling (as far as I could tell) in that episode.
I EARNED this bean. Now I'm going to my corner and thinking about how the CEO couple has probably started a benign Minamdang cult, eventually to be headed by their kids.
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kdramapedia
August 25, 2022 at 11:57 AM
Please let me know, too, because the reveal was SUCH a stretch. Those three case numbers that he supposedly remembered from the burned files but never looked into were the key somehow. But then he uses the file contents to declare there are three murders/justifications on his glass board. Duh, everyone knew that already.
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5 hmwtx
August 25, 2022 at 10:27 AM
I agree generally about this series - it lost a lot of its early charm and fun several episodes back...
But.
I enjoyed the finale, probably because I wasn't really expecting much. We do get to see the Big Baddie get caught - although I think I wanted to see him get sentenced or shot, either one, rather than just be in custody and facing charges. Zzzzz. The rest of the wrap-ups were predictable - even the one where Jae Hui decides she'd rather be solving murders with the whole crew rather than being on a date with Han Jun. It was good to see one last caper, though, even if I already kind of knew what would happen as it unfolded. The strung-out fistfight in the rain on top of the parking garage wasn't nearly exciting enough to salvage the series of events. And nobody was really in any mortal danger before that point, either - locked up in shops/chloroformed and laying in a security office, sure, but not really involved in the chase. Even the scene where Jae Hui takes the bullet - it was quite obviously a shoulder shot, not life threatening.
I'm not a bloodthirsty psychopath like our friend Do Won, but it just wasn't exciting enough to live up to the initial promise made by the series. It was a little disappointing, and even more so considering how much I liked this show in the beginning. But it was easy to follow, and it had some moments of brevity. Seo In Guk was still in it. So I don't consider the finale a total waste of an hour...
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6 Unaspirated
August 25, 2022 at 10:28 AM
I have unashamedly found this drama entertaining the whole time. Entertaining, not to be confused with flawless, or even necessarily good. This week was no exception.
We finally got the team-up between the police and the Minamdang crew on a level that I’d been waiting for the whole time. It’s almost like they’ve known that everyone was finding the police team pretty incompetent, because they really played that up before they revealed the understanding between all our folks on the non-psychopath team. I love how they all kept complimenting Nam Han-jun on his acting. Strong agree, show, strong agree.
Speaking of, I ended up being completely uninvested in the romance, but I didn’t really mind it being there either. And since Seo In-guk could probably fake romance with a random inanimate object, I still found his half of those scenes pretty fun to watch. (An aside: if I want to watch him in a really great, or at least solid, drama, what should I watch?)
I was pretty fine with the way the story played out, I just think they made some interesting (read: poor) choices regarding the execution of it. But at the end of the day, I had a pretty good time watching our over-the-top shaman and his family pull off their wild stunts and eventually get justice for Jae-jeong. If anyone ever writes the fan fic where Han-jun and Jae-jeong were a couple in the beginning, the FL doesn’t exist at all, and Han-jun does all of this for his lost love, I’ll be there.
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Nal
August 25, 2022 at 12:03 PM
I have watched 3 of his dramas and I loved him in all of them. But the dramas don't necessarily qualify as great dramas to the general public 😆 so I'll allow other beanies to weigh in
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 1:55 PM
I Remember You/ Hello Monster is one of if not his best drama.
Some people don't like the romance in I didn't mind it, but it was still better than this one lmao so you'll probably be fine with it too. The test of the drama is fantastic. Cannot recommend it enough.
Reply 97 is a classic. Reply series is Slice of Life and plays off the Who Is The Husband trope if you aren't aware. Reply88 gets all the hype these days but when I got into kdramas 97 was the bigger and more highly acclaimed of the two. You get him in his natural Busan accent against Eun Ji and it's great! This was one of his first dramas.
He's amazing in everything he's done but a lot of his dramas are... let's just say hit or miss to be nice today lmao.
Shopping King Louis is a fun, lite, fluffy show that is worth the watch if you don't mind its purposeful ridiculousness. Him and the FL in that (Nam Ji Hyun) have great chemistry and really sell the drama and its tone. (He actually studied literal puppies for this role lmao)
Squad 38 is a fun watch where he plays a conman. Not like... revolutionary or anything but easy to watch, and very entertaining. Anything by that crew is pretty good for a solid mid tier watch imo.
I personally loathe Hundred Million Stars and think it's an absolutely stupid drama that makes 0 sense, however, once again, Ziggy is great in it and carried it hard core for me. I can't recommend it as a show though. (Though many people adore it and will probably do the opposite haha)
He somejow managed to embody a literal concept and nothingness and not actually a human person in Doom: At Your Service which was extremely disconcerting albeit impressive. Don't watch Doom though. Lmao.
High School King of Savvy has its fans but I could never finish it and found everything else except him painful or painfully annoying hahaha
I did enjoy the mini drama Another Parting of his, but it's kinda weird lol
And that's everything of his I've seen (not including cameos)!
Looking forward to his upcoming movie Project Wolf Hunting, because Pipeline was utter nonsense.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 2:02 PM
TLDR: Watch I Remember You 😂😅
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2022 at 3:32 PM
@deeja here, re. your question about Ziggy recs 😅
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Unaspirated
August 26, 2022 at 4:43 AM
I expect no less thoroughness from you, @sicarius! Thank you so much for this totally complete rundown! I needed it, since I've known about him for a little while, but this is the first thing I've actually seen SIG in. *bookmarks this page for future use*
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2022 at 3:31 PM
Hahaha no worries!
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Moriaelini
July 5, 2023 at 2:45 PM
I love Shopping King Louis, it was ridiculous fun. Loved all the Reply series too. I might be the odd one out but I really liked The Smile Has Left Your Eyes as well. It was something different. I also enjoyed his turn as a second male lead in Master’s Sun.
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7 Kurama
August 25, 2022 at 10:57 AM
It's over! \o/
They strechted the story at its maximum. I really hoped they weren't hinting for a second season with the body but just to show us how they married to their job.
The good points : SIG as a shaman and SIG profiling villains or clients.
The bad points : the rest...
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8 imzadi
August 25, 2022 at 11:26 AM
So, this is it. The first Seo In Guk series I dropped before the finale. I was out two or three weeks ago.
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9 kdramapedia
August 25, 2022 at 11:52 AM
Finale week was all over the place, but I guess that's in line with the rest of the series.
The Do-Won takedown was too wacky, and I was so annoyed when they "rolled back the tape" showing they knew who Gopuri was the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I would've loved this wacky format if the drama had stuck to its original slapstick premise from premiere week, but the drama had been taking itself so seriously these past few weeks with the murder plots that these episodes were so jarring.
I also thought it was weird that Do-Won was so nervous when he had been so confident and maintaining his dorky model prosecutor persona for so long. This wasn't the first time he was close to being caught, so why the sudden personality change?
And who doesn't recognize their own sibling?! I can spot mine vs an imposter from a mile away, yet I'm supposed to believe Do-Won, criminal mastermind, doesn't recognize (1) the brother he grew up with or (2) the police/shaman colleagues he's been working closely with for years/weeks from a not-so-far distance and up close? Please.
This drama has been a bottomless plot hole that wasted the chemistry of our Cafe Minamdang crew. Good riddance!
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SEDH
August 25, 2022 at 2:42 PM
Right? I couldn't tell if they were playing with us or not - had Do-Won clocked that it wasn't his brother and henchman or was he really that oblivious. They were just watching from a nearby rooftop (with binoculars no less), there's no way they wouldn't notice who those people were. It just seemed inordinately silly and implausible - which is saying something in a drama filled with silly implausible plot points each week. I also laughed out loud when it suddenly was pouring rain for the fist-fight scene between Do-Won and Han-Jun.
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10 Nal
August 25, 2022 at 11:52 AM
I can't even explained how annoyed I was while watching episode 18.
Anyway, it's over.
The Minamdang crew and Nam Han Jun in particular was the best part of this drama and it would have been great if they were the only focus until the end.
Annyeong SIG👋🏾 See you in your next drama.
Thanks for the weecaps @meryl😊
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kelgabe
August 25, 2022 at 9:30 PM
' if they were the only focus until the end' Oh what could have been. @meryl thanks for sticking it out with all of us.
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11 LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
August 25, 2022 at 1:23 PM
This is where I launch into a 15 comments spray about thematic and tonal consistency and why this show ended up being so very very very extremely bad but it's not worth it and I don't care.
Kind of liked having a mindless mid-week show to watch. Ziggy rules. Even here. Adieu.
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12 💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 1:38 PM
Ziggy: 10/10
The show: 0/10
.
.
.
Everyone, give yourself a cookie for finishing this hot mess, and collectively receiving our Bean of Masochism/Shame lmao. We deserve it, I think.
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ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 25, 2022 at 5:04 PM
Forget a cookie, I deserve something much stronger. We all do.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 6:21 PM
*hands you a bottle of vodka*
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13 Lord Cobol (Kdramas, like water, flow downhill)
August 25, 2022 at 2:23 PM
Haven't seen as much of this recently as I used to, but...
Not Picking Up the Bloody Murder Weapon needs to be a required subject in Kdramaland schools. It should be on the college entrance exam.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 25, 2022 at 2:37 PM
Along with Not Pulling Out The Thing You've Been Stabbed With. Fortunately, the latter didn't happen in this show, but it still needs to be said.
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SED
August 25, 2022 at 2:45 PM
Ha! I was also a little concerned for him that he seemed to be wearing his blood splattered clothes for most of the rest of the episode. Could they not spare him some clothes at the police station? Did they not need it for evidence? Do-Won, on the other hand, managed to change clothes, wash his face and remove all other traces of evidence in less than 5 minutes, while in his car.
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Nal
August 25, 2022 at 2:47 PM
For the life of me I could understand how his first reflex in that situation wasn't to throw the knife away.
These writers... Anyway, it's dramaland so we suspend disbelief
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Moriaelini
July 5, 2023 at 2:53 PM
He didn’t pick it up, Do Won put it there while he was unconscious. Somehow, his completely doped and unconscious hand managed to keep it’s grip and then he managed to not notice/feel said knife in his hand when he woke. Ridiculousness all around. Also, Do Won saying they received a tip that Auntie Im (as a resident of Kansas, her name cracks me up) was ay Minamdang. Received a rio from who? Who called the prosecutor’s office and not the police with a tip? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣. This show had some really funny parts, but was a hard fail with the serious stuff, lol.
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14 ar_arguably romantic
August 25, 2022 at 3:05 PM
Thanks for the recap! I just had to let it go after mid-way through ep 16 and realizing it was going to be 18 episodes. I wanted to know the resolution, but in the end, it feel likes the resolution of 3 years of loss and emotional torment for Jae-hui and Han-jun...seem anti-climatic?
I guess I'm one of the few who like OYS and her with SIG and Mina and Kwak Shi Yang, but even with their powers combined...I couldn't do it. By episode 16 I became even irritated with the Minamdang crew and was only rooting for the side-rom-com of Min-gyeong and Director Park. All the weirdly depressing epilogues should have just been of the two of them.
is the web novel better? worse?
So Han-jun doesn't want to go back to working as a profiler in the police force now that his name is cleared?
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15 Britney
August 25, 2022 at 3:37 PM
For whatever flaws people say the show has, and it definitely has some, it really looked and felt like the cast was having fun playing their roles particularly the minamdang crew. Whenever they're being hammy and goofy, it looks like the reason people get into acting: to have fun with it. My favorite scenes of the finale when they were talking to the press and end up doing that pose haha as well as when you see just how much Han Jun makes things work in their group. I enjoy the blue haired guy too. That group really worked well in my opinion.
It was weird how he completely missed it not being his brother lying there but I guess that was Han Jun induced tunnel vision haha
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16 Islander north
August 25, 2022 at 4:33 PM
Found myself FF through every scene with the unbearable FL and finally realized this was too much work. Dropped half way through.
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17 ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
August 25, 2022 at 5:01 PM
It’s finally over, good riddance. This show was a good endurance test for my latent masochistic tendencies. I highly recommend it for others trying to do the same.
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18 FormAnOrderlyQueue
August 25, 2022 at 6:32 PM
They really should have stuck with Scooby-Doo. It would have been great. Hanjun was as narcissistic as Freddie ever was, Jaehui was channelling Daphne, Hyejun was the best Thelma ever - she even had the glasses and so much fun could have been had with that! - and Sucheol was so clearly based on Shaggy it was a crime not to keep the Scoobiness. I needed a mask reveal and, "I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those pesky kids..." and I would have been probably raving about it. How did they manage to get it so wrong from such potential?
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19 abalyn
August 25, 2022 at 8:06 PM
I bow to all of you. I gave up at episode 14. Finding out there were 18 episodes made me give up the will to watch.
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20 kelgabe
August 25, 2022 at 8:33 PM
The 2nd SIG drama i was relieved to see finally end (1st was DAYS). I am actually getting worried about SIG'S career at this point. Does anyone know if he is forced to choose subpar writers and roles because that's all he's being offered? Its such a waste of his immense talent to be in such a mess of a plot.
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kelgabe
August 27, 2022 at 4:37 PM
PS.
Project Wolf Hunting, I hope you are ready to shoulder all my hopes for a good SIG project this year.
Also I was disappointed that Deaconess didn't make an appearance in the finale.
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21 Margaret
August 25, 2022 at 10:16 PM
I enjoyed the entire series. It was fun and wacky. Acting was good, and I enjoyed the eye candy. Yes there were odd age gaps, but the show was not a real life cop show,. It was fantasy.
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22 Toodlepip
August 26, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Thank goodness it's over....
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23 Deeja
August 26, 2022 at 4:49 AM
Thank you so much for this recap. I can't drag myself anymore to watch the show but still curious how it ends. So your recap helps.
I recently watched Squad 38 for Seo In Guk, it's not a comedy but great for me. At least there's no unbearable FL 😅 Pipeline was a great Seo In Guk's movie too.
Do you have any other drama with Seo In Guk that's great to watch? I read Doom of Your Service is not that great, so what else is there 😅
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Moriaelini
July 5, 2023 at 3:12 PM
Shopping King Louie, Reply 1997 (all the Reply series are good), Master’s Sun though he is a second lead there, Hello Monster, High School King of Savvy, The Smile Has Left Your Eyes and Doom at Your Service. Not saying you will like them all or that they are all great, but just more Seo In Guk dramas.
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24 Diana Hansen
August 26, 2022 at 11:17 AM
great drama! not what i expected but fun, hijinks, mystery, and a very fun cast and of course Mr. Seo In-Gook. what could go wrong with that?!
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25 💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 26, 2022 at 3:33 PM
The palpable relief in this thread is so funny 🤣🤣🤣
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26 Elinara
August 29, 2022 at 7:40 PM
I wish this show had better writers. The characters were so inconsistent it drove me crazy. They had skills and talents, maybe superpowers(Jae-hui?), like martial arts at various levels or brains, except when the plot required them not to have them to proceed.
I thought the romance was incredibly forced. The age gap was weird, as you mentioned. Like you, the only reason I watched was for the Minamdang crowd and Seo In Guk as shaman. Those characters were great. If the whole show had been a light, Sherlockian, shamanic take on solving weekly cases, I would have loved this.
I didn’t enjoy the overly comedic, inept police storyline or the strangely abusive and childish, but supposedly competent Jae-hui at all. Use your words, not your fists, lady! No matter the backstory, I have no idea why anyone would fall in love with that character.
Cha Do-Won made no sense. He was brainwashed to forget he was a psychopathic killer, but he was still killing people? And like not blacking out, but still just killing people, yet we had that scene where he was shocked. I guess just at the brainwashing and the thought he wasn’t in control, but I felt the killer backstory was stupid and weak. Also, he so would have just killed everyone, not captured or knocked them out. Glad he didn’t, but not true to his character. I did kind of laugh at Han Jun using the clicker at Do-Won like he was a dog.
SIG and Kang Mina as siblings were so fun. I wish we could have a season two with just the Cafe characters and a different writer. But I read a review that thought the complete opposite where the writer only enjoyed Jae-hui and the police, so I guess everyone enjoys vastly differently things!
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27 Gene8
January 26, 2023 at 7:05 AM
Thanks for this. I just watched on Netflix but after the ep 15 baddie reveal, and discovering there were 18 episodes, I was out. The plot twist didn't even make sense, in regards to the actual evidence. Like yeah, they made the prosecutor a bit shady early on, but the actual nitty-gritty of the killer reveal had grand canyon size holes in the reasoning. And from your recaps, it was clear the last few episodes would have been too much for me lol. On a side note, I had a problem with the violence from the female characters that was supposed to be funny?? Like, a cop assaulting someone simply for her annoying her, should have seen her kicked off the force the FIRST time she did it! But they kept brushing it off?? I also found the sister's romance creepy. Kdramas love to have smart character learn what they need is a kindhearted idiot as a love interest. In reality this would mean never having an intelligent conversation with your partner for the rest of your life because they are that dense. A serious mess of a drama, for sure, that a better writer might have been able to salvage.
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28 Moriaelini
July 5, 2023 at 3:18 PM
What is this age gap people keep mentioning? Between the ML and FL? Looks like they are maybe supposed to be about 7 or 8 years apart, which is not big. The actors themselves are close in age, I believe she is just a year or so older than him…
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